San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-03-25

command of the Missouri guerrilla.
Charles William Quantrell, that Frank
James furnished the brain power and his
brother Jesse all the necessary examples
of deyiltry and cruelty that were needed
to excite the amiable tempers Of his as
sociates aud keep them at the proper
pitch of ferocity. When the war came
to an end the James brothers, finding
that the employment in which they had
been engaged for the four years past
was very congenial, took with them sew
eral bosom friends of the same sort and
founded what was known for nearly if
teen years to the sheriffs of Missouri,
Tennessee and Kansas as the James
boys gang" In 1870 the members were
Frank and Jesse James, Cole and John
Younger, and Tom and James Mcdaniel.
In 1880 they changed to the James
brothers. Ed Miller, Bill Ryan, Tucker
Basham, Wood Hit0 and Jim Cummings.
and it was by this band that the
Glendale, Blue Cut and Mortified rob
berries were committed
In 1881 Bill Ryan was arrested in
Nashville, and the Tennessee officers
having got upon the trail of the band,
they were obliged to separate and flee,
Frank and Jesse James and a new mem
Der named Dock Liddell, escaping by the
aid of an old man known as Hite. In
1882 Jesse James. who was hiding with
the Ford brothers near st. Joseph, Mo-,
was on the 3D. of April shot through the
back while hanging picture by Bob
Ford. and though Ford was brought to
trial upon charge of murder, his prose
cution turned out to be a miserable
farce, but he was found guilty and par
doned by Gov. Crittenden, thus giving
rise to the charge against the State Off
cials that the whole matter had been pre-
arranged, and that Bob Ford had been
promised big purse and pardon as the
price and reward of his deed.
The last affair of robbery in which
Frank James was concerned was the at
tack upon the Wabash Railroad train at
Winston, Mo-, in July of 1881, at which
the gang secured $500 from the messen-
gers safe, ard killed William Westfall,
the conductor of the train, and a man
named Frank Mcmillan.
In 1888 Frank James surrendered to
Gov. Crittenden, having received the as
surance that he would be given fair
trial, and on the Gath of July of that
year he was tried at Gallatin upon the
specific charge of having killed Frank
Mcmillan at the Winston train robbery.
The members of the gang who accompa-
MED him upon that excursion were Dick
Liddell, Wood Hite, Clarence Hite and
Jesse James, and the defense tried to
build upon the theory that only four
men were present, as Wood Hite so
closely resembled the defendant that he
was doubtlessly mistaken for him; but
this theory failed and no alibi could be
proved. Dick Liddell, an accomplice,
went upon the stand and in evidence
that failed to be shaken directly incrimi-
mated the defendant; nine men swore
that Frank James was the fifth robber
upon that train, and that he fired the
shot that killed Mcmillan, and three
more thought that he was, but in the
face of all this partial charge was
given to the jury and they brought in a
verdict of mot guilty"
Frank James Immediately after his
acquittal became lost to the public gaze,
and seeking the graceful retirement of a
country life passed his time in the perus-
al of those two works that his history
tells us he had an unaccountable par
TALLY fOr-Shakspeare and the bible.
The influence of the former has had a
visible effect upon his mental traits, and
the effect of the latter can be plainly
seen upon the highly moral qualities
that he has exhibited. Just how he es-
capped the dozen or fifteen indictments
pending against him for murder, train
robbing and bank-robbing in Missouri
and adjoining States is something of a
mystery.
Mr.. James has unintentionally solved
problem that has long taxed the minds
of our legislators-th providing of EN-
ployment for ex-convicts. If they pos
sess but reasonable share of notoriety,
let them, like Mr.. James, enter some
business concern, and if they succeed as
drawing attraction, then can they look
happily forward, like Mr.. James, to
bright future in the shoe and dry woods
line.